In my previous post, I wrote about my obstacles finding a job in nursing informatics. After I stopped thinking about finding a new job 24/7, I finally found one in New York City. Well, it wasn’t instant but I did receive call-backs and interviews. Too many interviews, in fact. I accepted every phone and in-person interview. Since this would be my first real job in informatics, I wanted to make sure I took the right job. Hence, why I accepted every interview.
I realized from this experience interviewing many times makes you a better interviewer. It helped me to answer questions quickly and enabled me to think about why I chose the intensive care unit and to explain that to the interviewer. As I went on each interview, I became confident in myself and my skill set. I wasn’t ashamed to let the interviewer know my skills and talents.
I had eight interviews but not every company offered me a job. I did get some rejections but that didn’t stop me. The job I was really interested in was in Georgia at a software vendor. But somehow the job fell through. In addition,was I really ready to move that far south?
But, there were more jobs to choose from in New York City. So out of all of the job choices I had, I chose to work at a New York State facility and accepted a part-time position as a nurse informaticist. My first informatics job! I was so ecstatic! Even though it was part-time, I didn’t care. I wanted my foot in the door as a nurse informaticist.
I was still working as a travel nurse and I organized my schedule so I worked as a travel nurse at night and as an informaticist during the “day”. But, even though I had my dream job, my phone still kept ringing with employers wanting to interview me. For those of you wondering, I had my resume in three job banks and joined a professional nursing organization previously called CARING, now ANIA-CARING. Since my nurse informaticist job was only part-time, I needed a full-time position since my travel nurse contract was expiring.
So, I kept interviewing. I was in the running for two different positions. One was a trainer/analyst position at a medical college and the other position was for an assistant nurse manager position in the post-acute care unit (PACU) at an orthopedic hospital.
At the end, I was offered both positions but I couldn’t make up my mind which one to take. I still had my part-time nurse informaticist position so I needed to take that into consideration. Can you guess which job I took? I wanted to utilize my nursing informatics degree so I accepted the trainer/clinical analyst position at the medical college. I knew the position would be challenging for me but I was ready for the challenge. And that is my story of how I got a job in informatics.
In an upcoming post. I will write about my lessons learned.
